Nemelex Xobeh

Nemelex is a strange and unpredictable trickster god, whose powers are invoked through magical packs of cards painted in the ichor of demons. Followers are expected to explore the world, and will receive decks of cards in return. Followers are encouraged to trust in the cards and use them as much as possible. However, the Trickster can ensure that fortune favours the bold.

The Trickster's followers gain various ways to influence fate when playing cards. They will quickly find that the effects of cards will be more powerful for them, increasingly so with higher piety. Later, followers will gain much more powerful abilities to manipulate the cards, allowing them to choose one of three drawn cards, to gain the effects of multiple cards at once, and finally to stack decks and re-order their contents.

Nemelex Xobeh likes it when you explore the world.

The power of Nemelex Xobeh's abilities and of the cards' effects is governed by Invocations.

Given Abilities

Card power improvement: The power of any card you draw is increased by (Piety × (Invocations+ 25) / 27) (see card power). This improves your chances to get improved effects from Ornate or Legendary decks. In addition, when drawing the Damnation card, you'll have a slightly improved number of targets (about Piety/5% chance to get one more target). (Passive)

Triple Draw: Draw three cards from any deck in your inventory, look at them, and decide which one to use, discarding the other two. If only two cards remain in a deck, then only the remaining two cards will be displayed. If only one card is left, then it will be played as normal while still incurring the regular ability cost. (Costs 2 MP, 150 Food, and 2-3 Piety)

Note that even if all viewed cards are undesirable, you must draw one of them; there is no way to back out once you have seen them.

Deal Four: Select a non-stacked deck in your inventory and draw four cards from it in a single turn, discarding the rest. If the deck has insufficient cards, you draw the missing cards from a deck of punishment. (Costs 8 MP, 300 Food, and 7-12 Piety)

Stack Five: View the first five cards of any deck in your inventory and order them however you want. All other cards are removed from the deck. You can stack a deck only once. (Costs 5 MP, 375 Food, and 10-15 Piety)

Punishments

Nemelex Xobeh does not appreciate abandonment, and will call down fearful punishments on disloyal followers!

Nemelex Xobeh forces sinners to rely on the luck of the draw. Stacked decks are immediately shuffled, and offenders are regularly forced to draw from the Deck of Punishment, inflicting almost every unpleasant effect imaginable. Further, attempting to draw from other decks may instead lead to drawing from the Deck of Punishment.

If you leave Nemelex Xobeh, your penance counter will be set to 150 (seems quite high, but that's because only 1/3 of the penance is active, so the main part is just as high as for the other gods) and all decks (whether in your inventory or loose) will be shuffled.

While your penance counter is above 100, Nemelex Xobeh will occasionally punish you by drawing a card from the deck of punishments, which can include one of the following (equal chances):

Also during penance, the power of cards from any other decks will be reduced by your penance, and there is a (penance/30)% chance that any card drawn from a deck (or [penance/10]% if it's a marked or seen card) that the card will be replaced by one from the deck of punishments.

Strategy

Nemelex will gift you many decks. Don't be too stingy with them, but be sure to save ornate and legendary decks for difficult fights. Used correctly and carefully, Nemelex's decks can make the early game quite easy for worshipers. Be sure to get your Invocations up quickly to maximize its effectiveness, and learn the effects of each card as quickly as possible.

You can also press ? while using Triple Draw or Stack Five to quickly view each potential card's effect.

Some of the summons that may appear in the deck of summoning may spawn hostile, as well as friendly. The chance of this decreases as your skill in Invocations increases. Even then, the friendly summons are usually more than capable of dealing with the hostiles.

Triple Draw is very useful for getting a card that is best suited for a situation. A poorly timed Degeneration card from the deck of destruction can polymorph a moderately dangerous group of monsters into something much, much worse. Remember that you must choose one of the three cards if using this ability; you cannot cancel a Triple Draw.

However, you can still cancel the effect of a targeted spell, such as one from the deck of destruction. You will still use the piety and hunger cost from the ability as normal.

It is best to use Deal Four on a brand new deck, rather than one from which you've already drawn multiple times. If a deck has fewer than four cards, Nemelex will draw one card from the deck of punishments to make up for it. This will only occur once per short deck—not once for each missing card. A deck with three cards and a deck with one card will still only draw one deck of punishment card.

Stack Five costs a fair amount of piety, but it is good for setting up decks of escape so that you know exactly what to expect. In addition to letting you order the five cards as you see fit, using this ability on a deck will identify the next card to be used in that deck for you later.

Nemelex is considered a chaotic god. Followers of Zin who convert to Nemelex will suffer Zin's wrath, although Elyvilon and The Shining One do not mind if you convert.